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Advocates say Trump executive order targeting trans people is ‘permission to hate’ 

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Advocates say Trump executive order targeting trans people is ‘permission to hate’ 

By Jon King
Advocates say Trump executive order targeting trans people is ‘permission to hate’ 
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Sherman Smith/States Newsroom

Both the ACLU and Lambda Legal laid out their plans this week to vigorously oppose an executive order by President Trump which they say requires discrimination against transgender individuals, while advocates in Michigan say the tone of the order has had the effect of making the community, especially trans kids, less safe.

“The overarching sentiment that I’m hearing from just about everyone, whether they’re part of the community or not, is this is permission to hate that seems to be seeping out of the administration,” Roz Keith, founder and executive director of Stand with Trans, told the Michigan Advance.

“I think that bullying in schools is going to increase, violence against the trans community, particularly trans women of color, is going to increase. These are just my predictions. I’m not speaking on behalf of Stand with Trans, but for me personally, I predict these things because we’re giving people permission to hate a particular segment of the population,” said Keith, the parent of a trans son.

Michigan House Democrats pass bills to ease name changes and codify changing gender markers

On his first day in office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order that essentially seeks to erase trans and nonbinary people, asserting that males and females “are not changeable” which is “grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” a viewpoint completely at odds with scientific evidence.

Additionally, a list of priorities published to the official White House website on Monday states among the ways Trump plans to “bring back American values” is to “establish male and female as biological reality and protect women from radical gender ideology.”

Keith says the notion that being trans is an ideology, and not a scientific fact as evidenced by those who live that reality every day, is hard to understand.

“That’s so ridiculous, because it’s hard to fathom that there are adults who presumably are educated and probably have some modicum of intelligence who are going down this path,” she said.

The legal battlefront

“There are going to be significant changes across government based on the instruction from the President to discriminate against transgender people, and we are monitoring those across the government and preparing to take whatever action is needed to ensure that transgender people are able to experience full protection of the law,” said Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.

Speaking on a call with reporters on Tuesday, Strangio said that in the short term, Trump’s executive order will restrict access to identification documents for trans individuals and could lead to solitary confinement and transfer of transgender inmates in federal prisons. 

“We are looking at everything, trying to figure out what is happening, and monitoring both the new policy from the federal agencies, new potential proposed rules and regulations from the federal agencies, and then, of course, the material consequences on the ground for transgender people,” he said.

The order, which Strangio said rolls back civil rights protections for transgender people that are guaranteed under Title IX and Title VIl, is in itself not self-executing and will require specific action by federal agencies, which will likely form the basis of challenges by the ACLU and Lambda Legal. 

Title VII, passed as part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, while Title IX, passed in 1972, protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. 

In April, the former Biden administration announced changes in the Title IX law that codified protections for transgender students and prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ students and employees based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. 

Trump has promised to overturn the rule change, and Monday’s executive order is seen as the first step in that process. As of Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education website states that nondiscriminatory actions covered under Title IX also include sexual orientation and gender identity, but that guidance is expected to change as it already has on other government websites.

“We know that information has already been taken down from the Department of State website,” said Strangio. “I think that at this point, it is very likely that an individual would not be able to access a passport with a gender marker that is different from their sex assigned at birth.”

Strangio said because there isn’t yet a formal policy from the Department of State, they don’t have a clear indication for individuals about what exactly will happen.

“But we are monitoring that and waiting to see exactly how each of these directives to federal agencies will play out on the ground,” he said, adding that another agency they are monitoring is the Bureau of Prisons, which was named explicitly in the executive order.

“We are hearing that individuals are being moved into some sort of solitary confinement, administrative isolation, and being told that they are going to be transferred from women’s prisons to men’s prisons. We’re trying to figure out exactly whether BoP has enacted new policy or that the agency is just acting pursuant to the executive order itself,” he said.

Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior counsel and health care strategist at Lambda Legal, said while the order itself is vague on specifics, it absolutely shows what the administration’s overall plan is.

“The takeaway from today is that people should be concerned about what this executive order, not necessarily does, but rather indicates and signals, which is the abandonment by this administration with regards to enforcement of civil rights protections for transgender people,” said Gonzalez-Pagan.

Meanwhile, Loren Khogali, executive director of ACLU Michigan, said the group plans to challenge the new administration’s efforts at the state level, as well. 

The ACLU will confront a second Trump presidency with every ounce of its formidable skills, strategic prowess, and people power,” said Khogali. “Whether it’s fighting efforts at mass deportation that target our family members, neighbors, and co-workers, or defending reproductive freedom for all, protecting our First Amendment right to speak out against government action, or guarding the rights of our LGBTQ+ Michiganders, the ACLU will be unwavering.”

That effort will begin with a virtual townhall set for at 7 p.m. Thursday. Titled “Taking on Trump: The First 100 Days, it will outline “plans to counter the most urgent threats — and show you how to get involved in the fight ahead.”

At the national level, the ACLU is also awaiting word from the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Skrmetti, in which it heard arguments in December on whether Tennessee’s ban on gender affirming care for minors is unconstitutional. The high court’s decision will set legal precedent on equal protection for transgender children.

Strangio, who argued the Skrmetti case before the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first known transgender person to do so, said while they expect the Trump Administration to reverse course and back out of opposing the ban, it won’t affect the case itself.

“Nothing, of course, would change just by virtue of them changing their position or even moving to dismiss the petition insofar as the case continues to be live, The controversy remains,” said Strangio, who noted that the case was brought as a private action by three families with transgender children and Memphis Dr. Susan Lacy, who are challenging Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors.

Advocates say Trump executive order targeting trans people is ‘permission to hate’ 
Photo by Zackary Drucker, The Gender Spectrum Collection

‘Can you help me here?’

Legal strategies aside, Keith says the fear is palpable among trans individuals and their loved ones, with pleas for help coming from across the country.

“We have a a TikTok video out there that talks about our resources and how Stand with Trans is here for the community, and within the last 48 hours I saw this huge uptick of comments like, ‘Can you help me in Pennsylvania? Can you help me in Ohio? Can you help me here? What about Texas?’ So all these people are looking for support and we’ve basically said our therapy services are only in Michigan due to the licensing, but if you need to find someone in your state, just let us know and we will help you,” she said. 

Keith says there’s no doubt there will be a negative impact for Trump’s policies, but there’s also no doubt that no one is just going to give up on their loved ones and the community at large.

“Folks are trying to stay positive but there’s this kind of seesaw between ‘This is really bad, this is really awful’ and on the other hand, ‘We’re gonna fight. We’re not backing down’,” she said. “Trans people exist. They will always exist. They have always existed and regardless of the barriers, we’re going to continue to fight to make sure that folks get what they need.”